Session six brought the containment to 61%.
Session seven brought it to 70%.
The threshold. The number that Nihil had identified as the tipping point — the percentage at which the wards became self-sustaining, no longer requiring external reinforcement to maintain structural integrity. Above 70%, the containment could hold on its own. Not indefinitely — but for years. Decades, if the leyline feeds remained stable.
Seven sessions. Seven nights of seven people standing in a circle, feeding their bloodline energies into a structure that was older than the academy and more important than anything the academy had ever taught.
When the seventh session's resonance faded and the numbers settled, I felt it through Nihil — the particular shift in the containment's energy that marked the transition from "dependent" to "self-sustaining." Like the moment a patient's heartbeat stabilized after surgery. Still fragile. Still monitored. But alive on its own.
